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Overview

Founded in 2000 by Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo and headquartered in Venice (Italy), Golden Goose Deluxe Brand is a leading Italian designer of contemporary luxury casual wear and accessories for both men and women, mostly known globally for its Golden Goose sneakers brand.

Since its foundation, the company’s development strategy has been built on a high-end market positioning, proposing a contemporary, unique and consistent style over time with a distinctive brand identity.

Golden Goose’s products are distributed worldwide through a highly selective wholesale and retail distribution network in key markets such as Italy, the UK, France, the US, Japan, Korea and, more recently, China.

>0%

sales CAGR and >70% EBITDA CAGR
over Ergon’s investment

0

affiliated stores opened
in South Korea and Japan

0

new stores opened in key markets
(China, the US and the UK)

0%

international wholesale sales (vs. ~45% at entry)

Investment Date:
Exit Date:
Sector:
Region:
Sales:
Employees:
 May 2015
 March 2017
 Retail/Luxury
 Italy
 €101m at exit
 90 at exit
goldengoosedeluxebrand.com

How did we support Golden Goose

In May 2015, we acquired Golden Goose from a pool of financial investors and its founders, who reinvested alongside us. We recognized (i) the quality of its management team, (ii) its unique market position, and (iii) the favorable underlying market trends that we believed could further support the development of the company in the future.

To enable Golden Goose reach its full potential, we focused on:

Growth acceleration

Our primary goal was to maximize the company’s organic growth potential. As such, we re-designed the distribution model in the company’s core geographies, evolving from an agency model (which was terminated) to a far more attractive direct distribution model, with specific selling campaigns leveraging the company’s directly operated showrooms (Milan, Paris and Tokyo). In addition, we launched “pre-collections”, which proved instrumental to better serve the most demanding wholesale customers such as department stores in the US and in Japan.

We also focused on accelerating the company’s international expansion by opening 5 flagship stores in key fashion markets (i.e., mainland China, the US and the UK), 12 new franchised stores in high-potential markets such as South Korea and Japan, and securing a pipeline of 5 additional stores for the future.

Operations

Management had historically been solely focused on expansion. At some point, they realized the need to further professionalize processes and reporting, both at central and retail network level. We helped them in this initiative with a series of comprehensive KPIs.

In addition, we supported management in the optimization of operations, products and services, achieving significant improvements across different areas including supply chain, quality control procedures and internal processes.

Finally, we reinforced the management team and the creative department.

Investment Date: May 2015
Exit Date: March 2017
Sector: Retail/Luxury
Region: Italy
Sales: €101m at exit
Employees: 90 at exit
goldengoosedeluxebrand.com

Overview

Founded in 2000 by Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo and headquartered in Venice (Italy), Golden Goose Deluxe Brand is a leading Italian designer of contemporary luxury casual wear and accessories for both men and women, mostly known globally for its Golden Goose sneakers brand.

Since its foundation, the company’s development strategy has been built on a high-end market positioning, proposing a contemporary, unique and consistent style over time with a distinctive brand identity.

Golden Goose’s products are distributed worldwide through a highly selective wholesale and retail distribution network in key markets such as Italy, the UK, France, the US, Japan, Korea and, more recently, China.

>0%

sales CAGR and >70% EBITDA CAGR
over Ergon’s investment period

0

affiliated stores opened
in South Korea and Japan

0

new stores opened in key markets
(China, the US and the UK)

0%

international wholesale sales
(vs. ~45% at entry)

How did we support Golden Goose

In May 2015, we acquired Golden Goose from a pool of financial investors and its founders, who reinvested alongside us. We recognized (i) the quality of its management team, (ii) its unique market position, and (iii) the favorable underlying market trends that we believed could further support the development of the company in the future.

To enable Golden Goose reach its full potential, we focused on:

Growth acceleration

Our primary goal was to maximize the company’s organic growth potential. As such, we re-designed the distribution model in the company’s core geographies, evolving from an agency model (which was terminated) to a far more attractive direct distribution model, with specific selling campaigns leveraging the company’s directly operated showrooms (Milan, Paris and Tokyo). In addition, we launched “pre-collections”, which proved instrumental to better serve the most demanding wholesale customers such as department stores in the US and in Japan.

We also focused on accelerating the company’s international expansion by opening 5 flagship stores in key fashion markets (i.e., mainland China, the US and the UK), 12 new franchised stores in high-potential markets such as South Korea and Japan, and securing a pipeline of 5 additional stores for the future.

Operations

Management had historically been solely focused on expansion. At some point, they realized the need to further professionalize processes and reporting, both at central and retail network level. We helped them in this initiative with a series of comprehensive KPIs.

In addition, we supported management in the optimization of operations, products and services, achieving significant improvements across different areas including supply chain, quality control procedures and internal processes.

Finally, we reinforced the management team and the creative department.